President's day- or, The Day After Tomorrow even though that was an awful movie. Either way, the snowpocolipse dumped another 20 some inches in St. Paul. The onslaught started on Sunday, after I got done with my long run. I ran at 6am, got back at 7:15 or so, went to bed, woke up at 10 to go to church, and there was already a good 3 inches on the ground. By the time I went back to school for my chapter meeting, the roads were already so bad that it took me an hour to get to school when it usually takes 20 minutes. Monday was a snow day, and the snow kept falling throughout the day. I shoveled our sidewalk when I woke up, which took about three hours, and then again in the afternoon, which took an hour and a half- which gives you an idea of how much snow we had.
Anyways, I ran on Monday. Where you ask? well, nowhere really. Everything was under 20'' of snow, and they had given up trying to plow the roads, so I decided to run right through the middle of the road since that was the most clear. Nobody seemed to like that idea much, so I got a bunch of angry honks from the few cars behind me. And I was all like "what? the roads are awful, and you're not going anywhere fast, so just calm down." For real though, I was going faster than cars could go, and I was relegated to 9:00, 9:30 paces.
Also on Monday I had planned a Relay For Life meeting. I'm the president of St. Thomas' Colleges Against Cancer chapter, and so by default a co- president of our Relay For Life chapter, which is done in concert with St. Kate's, which is a all- girls school close by. Since St. Thomas is hosting Relay For Life this year, I have to take a more authoritative stance on the whole deal.We were supposed to have a RFL meeting on that Monday, except we couldn't since both the St. Thomas and St. Kate's campuses were closed. This was kind of Important because I have some things to do that are waiting on that meeting. So I rescheduled it for tomorrow, which was a challenge, since it took us a month to schedule the first meeting on Monday.
On another note, I'm in the process of updating the list of running sites to the left of this post. I'll also add a list of races that I'm running, so you know which races to stay away from
Monday, February 21, 2011
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Getting my fingernails dirty, among other things
Its beginning to feel a lot like baseball season, er, spring. Same thing, really. As I write this, the Twins are working out in Fort Myers. That means its almost time to renew my MLB gameday audio subscription so I can listen to the revamped Red Sox. The first baseball game on the radio is kind of like the official start of spring, whether there's spring on the ground or not. Its even looking like Spring around here, believe it or not. This whole last week was over 40, I think. Most of the snow melted, and I was able to run outside every day last week. One day it was over 50 and I was able to run with out a shirt for most of the run.
Of course, the downside is that I was running through a watery, dirty mess the whole week. I mean, you have a good 24'' of snow on the ground, at least. Where does it all go? I mean, after a point, the storm sewers get clogged, so the slush just hangs around. In some parts its bad, like by my house for the first mile or so. There's still ice in the water and stuff, so its cold even wearing wool socks and stuff. I also kick the stuff up behind me so that the back of my shorts and shirt are covered in muck. It looks legit though, so I don't mind. Another thing is that I feel so tall now. There is a street I run on that the snowbanks were taller than me. If I was running on the sidewalk and you looked from the street you couldn't see me at all because of the snowbanks. Now the snowbanks are melted a little bit to where I can see over them. I feel so tall right now!
That said, its supposed to snow 6'' tomorrow.
Of course, the downside is that I was running through a watery, dirty mess the whole week. I mean, you have a good 24'' of snow on the ground, at least. Where does it all go? I mean, after a point, the storm sewers get clogged, so the slush just hangs around. In some parts its bad, like by my house for the first mile or so. There's still ice in the water and stuff, so its cold even wearing wool socks and stuff. I also kick the stuff up behind me so that the back of my shorts and shirt are covered in muck. It looks legit though, so I don't mind. Another thing is that I feel so tall now. There is a street I run on that the snowbanks were taller than me. If I was running on the sidewalk and you looked from the street you couldn't see me at all because of the snowbanks. Now the snowbanks are melted a little bit to where I can see over them. I feel so tall right now!
That said, its supposed to snow 6'' tomorrow.
Monday, February 14, 2011
North Dakota, holler
This weekend has by far been the highlight of my running career outside of racing, and the highlight of my Sigma Chi life since Initiation. I was meaning to post about this before the weekend, but whatevs I guess. I pushed off my tempo run until Friday and switched it with an easy run because I was sick on Thursday, which is usually my tempo run day. I skipped work because I needed to sleep in. I usually wake up for work around 5:30am, so I think I just basically ran myself into the ground. I slept until 9am and felt good enough. So anyways, easy run that day on the treadmill, watched an entire episode of divorce court. **** got real. The next day we were set to go to North Dakota at 3, and seeing as I got out of class at 1:30, I kind of had to drop the hammer a little bit. I was supposed to go 2@8's, then 5@7's, then 1@8's, but it turned out to be something like 5:00@8's, 5@6:25's, 1@7:45's for time's sake. I just barely got to take a shower too.
Me and 5 other Sigma Chi brothers headed down to the NDSU campus for the North Central Provence conference 2011. For those who don't know, which is probably everyone, provence is kind of like a regional conference. So Friday night we rolled up to our sketched- out hotel around 7, and called for dinner. We went to Granite City, and waited three hours to get our food. Granted, we did have a group of 30 and it was a Friday night, but come on. It was midnight or so when everybody got finished, so we just went home and went to bed. The actual provence meeting was the next day, and that was pretty cool. One of our Grand Officers skyped in, so that was kind of cool to have someone 1/3 of the fraternity's leadership at the meeting. So that went well, it was long though.
After the meeting we went back to the hotel and the guys I was with drank a lot. Then we went to a place called the Sports Bubble, which is kind of like the metrodome only not as big and still inflated. We were like the only guys there, which was a little weird, but we played football anyways. I'm not even that good at football, but since everyone was drunk, I was doing work.
After that most of the guys went to a cigar shop that we couldn't get into because the entrance was through a bar and I'm not 21. So we went to the NDSU sigs' house and the other brothers said they would join us in half an hour. So it was good and we hung out there for a while, until all of the NDSU sigs fell asleep, which was a little weird because it was only 11:30 and now we were the only guys awake. By that time I was getting pretty hungry, so me and the guy I was with took a pizza from the fridge and turned on the oven. Not our pizza, but whatever, we're brothers, right?
Shortly after, one of the brothers who wasn't drinking called me and let me know he was coming home from the bar. I told him to swing by and pick us up, because now it was 12:30 or so and I wanted to go to bed. so he did, but we still had this pizza. We didn't have an oven in the room, so we tore it in 4 pieces and microwaved it. Long story short, it didn't work. So don't cook pizza in the microwave.
That morning, I woke up to a call from our consul's girlfriend at 5:30, and she was thinking I was our consul, so she was laying the mack down pretty hard. That was pretty awkward. Anyways, I had an 18 mile run, so I got dressed and did that. That was really cool. I knew where I was going, but at the same time I didn't. I headed out from Fargo, and made my way down to Moorhead, through the campus of MSU Moorhead, and Concordia and back to Fargo. It was pretty cool running past the "Minnesota welcomes you" sign on the way there and the "thank you for visiting" sign on the way back. I wish I had a camera, it was pretty cool, and I felt like a total badass.
Me and 5 other Sigma Chi brothers headed down to the NDSU campus for the North Central Provence conference 2011. For those who don't know, which is probably everyone, provence is kind of like a regional conference. So Friday night we rolled up to our sketched- out hotel around 7, and called for dinner. We went to Granite City, and waited three hours to get our food. Granted, we did have a group of 30 and it was a Friday night, but come on. It was midnight or so when everybody got finished, so we just went home and went to bed. The actual provence meeting was the next day, and that was pretty cool. One of our Grand Officers skyped in, so that was kind of cool to have someone 1/3 of the fraternity's leadership at the meeting. So that went well, it was long though.
After the meeting we went back to the hotel and the guys I was with drank a lot. Then we went to a place called the Sports Bubble, which is kind of like the metrodome only not as big and still inflated. We were like the only guys there, which was a little weird, but we played football anyways. I'm not even that good at football, but since everyone was drunk, I was doing work.
After that most of the guys went to a cigar shop that we couldn't get into because the entrance was through a bar and I'm not 21. So we went to the NDSU sigs' house and the other brothers said they would join us in half an hour. So it was good and we hung out there for a while, until all of the NDSU sigs fell asleep, which was a little weird because it was only 11:30 and now we were the only guys awake. By that time I was getting pretty hungry, so me and the guy I was with took a pizza from the fridge and turned on the oven. Not our pizza, but whatever, we're brothers, right?
Shortly after, one of the brothers who wasn't drinking called me and let me know he was coming home from the bar. I told him to swing by and pick us up, because now it was 12:30 or so and I wanted to go to bed. so he did, but we still had this pizza. We didn't have an oven in the room, so we tore it in 4 pieces and microwaved it. Long story short, it didn't work. So don't cook pizza in the microwave.
That morning, I woke up to a call from our consul's girlfriend at 5:30, and she was thinking I was our consul, so she was laying the mack down pretty hard. That was pretty awkward. Anyways, I had an 18 mile run, so I got dressed and did that. That was really cool. I knew where I was going, but at the same time I didn't. I headed out from Fargo, and made my way down to Moorhead, through the campus of MSU Moorhead, and Concordia and back to Fargo. It was pretty cool running past the "Minnesota welcomes you" sign on the way there and the "thank you for visiting" sign on the way back. I wish I had a camera, it was pretty cool, and I felt like a total badass.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
You are not the father!
No, I don't have a kid you don't know about. I was watching the Maury Show this afternoon. Before you get worried about me, let me explain. I ran today on the treadmill. Since the demographic of people in the St. Thomas cardio room is mostly young ladies, so the TVs were set up to talk shows and stuff. The TV right in front of me was tuned to the Maury Show, and since I went 50 minutes today, so I saw the whole thing, and that includes the "Am I the father?" segment or whatever, which was hilarious. But yeah, I felt like I let myself down running on the treadmill. I haven't ran inside all winter, but finally broke down. It wasn't even that cold, only -17 degree windchill (not even exaggerating, I ran in -27 degree windchill earlier this year, it sounds worse than it actually is.) The main reason I gave in is because of Grandmas training. This year I'm trying to hit a specific time (Boston, so 3:10:59 or less) so my workouts are usually run at a set pace that goes down by a couple seconds every week. This week its 8:17, save for tomorrow, which is a tempo run at 6:50's.
Yesterday I ran outside, and I actually averaged close to 8:15's, although I really couldn't tell you how. I pieced together a few routes, and ran through two college campuses and passed as many businesses as I could because they have the best chance of having a somewhat clear sidewalk. Somehow, I strung together two 7:00 miles and the rest were mid 8's. It sucked though, the hardest 7 mile run I've done in a while. So today I decided on the treadmill. First time in the new athletic center and I was pretty impressed. Finally something that looks like its worth the tuition I pay to go to this godforsaken school. Lets run down the pros and cons of the run:
Pros:
Yesterday I ran outside, and I actually averaged close to 8:15's, although I really couldn't tell you how. I pieced together a few routes, and ran through two college campuses and passed as many businesses as I could because they have the best chance of having a somewhat clear sidewalk. Somehow, I strung together two 7:00 miles and the rest were mid 8's. It sucked though, the hardest 7 mile run I've done in a while. So today I decided on the treadmill. First time in the new athletic center and I was pretty impressed. Finally something that looks like its worth the tuition I pay to go to this godforsaken school. Lets run down the pros and cons of the run:
Pros:
- Wore flats for the first time in 4 months
- Didn't have to wear multiple layers or deal with wind
- met some really good looking ladies
- No hills or ice
- Putting my shirt over the treadmill display made it much easier psychologically
- Ran straight 8:17's every mile
- It feels awesome knowing that you ran longer than most people in the room
- Ran straight 8:17's every mile
- I finished my run knowing I had not gone anywhere
- Somebody stole my shirt
- meatheads
- no hills, nothing really distinctive
- It was freakin 70 degrees the whole time!
- I was sweating profusely
Monday, January 31, 2011
That probably would have hurt if it wasnt so awesome
Or, "Que sera sera"
And we're back to running. Today's run was a fun one, with the goal more endurance than distance or time. Who am I kidding? there was no real goal. Its the day before marathon training starts and I just wanted to get some acidosis going on. It was snowing fairly hard when I got out of class and laced up the shoes, and there was quite a bit on the ground. It looked pretty, but it wasn't pretty to run in. It was pretty much a "pick your poison run," meaning that whichever route I picked to run wouldn't be 100% runable. I picked my normal 8 mile route down by the U of M, but only ran 5 of it. Its usually pretty well plowed, but not today. I couldn't even finish my warm up mile and a half warm up. I wiped out five times during my warm up, and ended up walking a little under half of it. Surprisingly, I didn't break anything. I fell a total of 6 times during that five miler. It was a good time though, I was fine during my run, save for being ridiculously hot and sweaty for it being 8 degrees outside.
I also got my Garmin watch today. I really wanted one, but honestly, I let my ambition get the best of me and ordered it last weekend. Granted, I wanted it for pace training for Grandmas, but I'm in a big fiscal crisis right now, it being the beginning of the semester and all, and I let my impulses get the best of me a little bit. That notwithstanding, I got a Garmin 305 off Amazon for $120 with free shipping, which is pretty cheap compared to what I could find. Anyways, I charged it up during my International Law and Orgs class and ran with it today. I'll review it later because today I used it in glorified watch mode. My heart rate (while I was running) was well over 180, so that tells you how tough the run was. The problem was I wasn't running all the time, which screwed everything up. However, I did somehow manage to click off miles 3 and 4 at 7:35 and 7:40, respectively. Just don't ask me to do it again.
Que Sera Sera means "whatever will be, will be" in Latin. Unfortunately, it looks like I'm going to start my Grandma's training on the treadmill. That is, if I can fit it in. Otherwise, we'll see how it goes.
And we're back to running. Today's run was a fun one, with the goal more endurance than distance or time. Who am I kidding? there was no real goal. Its the day before marathon training starts and I just wanted to get some acidosis going on. It was snowing fairly hard when I got out of class and laced up the shoes, and there was quite a bit on the ground. It looked pretty, but it wasn't pretty to run in. It was pretty much a "pick your poison run," meaning that whichever route I picked to run wouldn't be 100% runable. I picked my normal 8 mile route down by the U of M, but only ran 5 of it. Its usually pretty well plowed, but not today. I couldn't even finish my warm up mile and a half warm up. I wiped out five times during my warm up, and ended up walking a little under half of it. Surprisingly, I didn't break anything. I fell a total of 6 times during that five miler. It was a good time though, I was fine during my run, save for being ridiculously hot and sweaty for it being 8 degrees outside.
I also got my Garmin watch today. I really wanted one, but honestly, I let my ambition get the best of me and ordered it last weekend. Granted, I wanted it for pace training for Grandmas, but I'm in a big fiscal crisis right now, it being the beginning of the semester and all, and I let my impulses get the best of me a little bit. That notwithstanding, I got a Garmin 305 off Amazon for $120 with free shipping, which is pretty cheap compared to what I could find. Anyways, I charged it up during my International Law and Orgs class and ran with it today. I'll review it later because today I used it in glorified watch mode. My heart rate (while I was running) was well over 180, so that tells you how tough the run was. The problem was I wasn't running all the time, which screwed everything up. However, I did somehow manage to click off miles 3 and 4 at 7:35 and 7:40, respectively. Just don't ask me to do it again.
Que Sera Sera means "whatever will be, will be" in Latin. Unfortunately, it looks like I'm going to start my Grandma's training on the treadmill. That is, if I can fit it in. Otherwise, we'll see how it goes.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
All Star review: swing and a miss
Or, "Bettman whiffs on another gimmick," or, "taking steps to alienate actual hockey fans."
Disclaimer: I know this is a running blog, but I've written about hockey before, and I'll do it again. If you're not interested, no offense taken, you can just sit this post out.
I just got finished watching NHL All- Star weekend from Raleigh, NC. This year the NHL tried a new format for All Star weekend, most notably instituting a fantasy draft for the all stars voted in. Both captains, Eric Staal and Nicholas Lindstrom were assisted by their assistant captains in picking a team from the available pool of players. I wasn't crazy about the fantasy draft idea to begin with, but I guess I can live with it. I'm hockey purist, so that was probably most of it. I was also hoping and praying that Ovechkin and Crosby weren't put on opposite teams (which most likely would have happened, had Crosby played), resulting in a ugly media orgasm not unlike the Winter Classic, which was billed as Crosby vs. Ovechkin plus some other guys who happen to be skating on the same ice sheet, but for all intents and purposes won't get mentioned. But I eventually warmed up to the fantasy draft, although I still think they should have kept the East vs. West format.
Saturday was the Super Skills competition, which was nothing short of a disaster. It started with the player introductions. Visually it was awesome, but it was filled with mistakes. This year they added a relay event, which consisted of 4 (or six, I can't remember) teams doing a relay consisting of a one- timer competition, a passing competition, a stickhandling component, and accuracy shooting. The competition was set up as a tournament, with the two fastest times "playing eachother." I couldn't even watch that. It was so boring. I wouldn't be opposed to the NHL adding the stickhandling component as a stand alone event, that was the only keeper of the bunch. Get rid of the relay, please! The only gripe I had passed that was that all the competitions were set up as head to head tournaments pitting team Staal against team Lindstrom. That was not only confusing, but unnecessary- just why? the superskills is an individual, not a team competition. The shootout competition was also super lame. Corey Perry was the only one who pulled a really sick move, and he got stoned by Fleury. They timed the accuracy shooting competition, so they did like the first person to hit all four targets the quickest. Awful. At the end they did a last man standing breakaway competition, where if you didn't score on your breakaway, you were out. That was the on;y event where it wasn't really segregated by team, and they did it right. So kudos to the NHL on that one.
The game itself was good. A little lackluster, save for the last ten minutes, but it was a good game overall. They could do away with mic- ing the goalies I think, but maybe I'm thinking that because I used to play goalie. The player intro was very Ottawa Senators in last year's playoffs- esque, so in other words just weird. The music made me want to throw up. Three Doors Down? really? like come on, pick someone who was popular in at least the last five years. They also plated way too much rap, and not popular rap either. I also heard the Cha Cha Slide at least three times and the Cupid Shuffle once. At a hockey game? really? come on man. Also, get rid of Doc Emerick, he's an awful announcer and makes me want to cut my ears off. They should just let Eric Staal commentate. My favorite part was when he and Doc were talking. It went something like this
That, or the ref talking to Staal saying "that would be f***ing awesome." Don't even get me started on the NHL Guardian cartoons released during the second intermission. So, in summary:
Fantasy draft: good
Changes to Super Skills: worse than bad
Game itself: good
Disclaimer: I know this is a running blog, but I've written about hockey before, and I'll do it again. If you're not interested, no offense taken, you can just sit this post out.
I just got finished watching NHL All- Star weekend from Raleigh, NC. This year the NHL tried a new format for All Star weekend, most notably instituting a fantasy draft for the all stars voted in. Both captains, Eric Staal and Nicholas Lindstrom were assisted by their assistant captains in picking a team from the available pool of players. I wasn't crazy about the fantasy draft idea to begin with, but I guess I can live with it. I'm hockey purist, so that was probably most of it. I was also hoping and praying that Ovechkin and Crosby weren't put on opposite teams (which most likely would have happened, had Crosby played), resulting in a ugly media orgasm not unlike the Winter Classic, which was billed as Crosby vs. Ovechkin plus some other guys who happen to be skating on the same ice sheet, but for all intents and purposes won't get mentioned. But I eventually warmed up to the fantasy draft, although I still think they should have kept the East vs. West format.
Saturday was the Super Skills competition, which was nothing short of a disaster. It started with the player introductions. Visually it was awesome, but it was filled with mistakes. This year they added a relay event, which consisted of 4 (or six, I can't remember) teams doing a relay consisting of a one- timer competition, a passing competition, a stickhandling component, and accuracy shooting. The competition was set up as a tournament, with the two fastest times "playing eachother." I couldn't even watch that. It was so boring. I wouldn't be opposed to the NHL adding the stickhandling component as a stand alone event, that was the only keeper of the bunch. Get rid of the relay, please! The only gripe I had passed that was that all the competitions were set up as head to head tournaments pitting team Staal against team Lindstrom. That was not only confusing, but unnecessary- just why? the superskills is an individual, not a team competition. The shootout competition was also super lame. Corey Perry was the only one who pulled a really sick move, and he got stoned by Fleury. They timed the accuracy shooting competition, so they did like the first person to hit all four targets the quickest. Awful. At the end they did a last man standing breakaway competition, where if you didn't score on your breakaway, you were out. That was the on;y event where it wasn't really segregated by team, and they did it right. So kudos to the NHL on that one.
The game itself was good. A little lackluster, save for the last ten minutes, but it was a good game overall. They could do away with mic- ing the goalies I think, but maybe I'm thinking that because I used to play goalie. The player intro was very Ottawa Senators in last year's playoffs- esque, so in other words just weird. The music made me want to throw up. Three Doors Down? really? like come on, pick someone who was popular in at least the last five years. They also plated way too much rap, and not popular rap either. I also heard the Cha Cha Slide at least three times and the Cupid Shuffle once. At a hockey game? really? come on man. Also, get rid of Doc Emerick, he's an awful announcer and makes me want to cut my ears off. They should just let Eric Staal commentate. My favorite part was when he and Doc were talking. It went something like this
Doc: Here's a three on one for team Lindstrom
Staal (screaming): FOR GOD'S SAKE GET BACK!
That, or the ref talking to Staal saying "that would be f***ing awesome." Don't even get me started on the NHL Guardian cartoons released during the second intermission. So, in summary:
Fantasy draft: good
Changes to Super Skills: worse than bad
Game itself: good
Friday, January 28, 2011
Holding down the couch like its my job
The calendar is up in my room, and that only means one thing, and that thing is that marathon training is starting up on February 1st. Which marathon am I training for? Not sure yet. Maybe Grandmas again, maybe Med City, maybe something else. Whatever though, I mean four months is a long time. I better be prepared rather than unprepared if I decide to do a spring marathon, whichever one.
So, running has been tough lately. On Tuesday, I ran, and I chafed. Like, real bad. I was chafed in places where no dude wants to be chafed. If you’re a guy I think you know what I mean. So I took two days off- completely off, save for core work. It sucked. I usually don’t wear body glide because I usually don’t chafe, except in the late miles of marathons. I learned my lesson this time. This morning I got up and ran, although not as far as I had planned. I went three. Three whole miles.
One of my problems was that I wore my GTS 11’s for the first time in three months or so. Bad idea because today was the first day over freezing in forever, so the streets were filled with slush. It was a slog fest, and I doubt I could have gone very far anyways because of the conditions. I was sweating even after the three miles I did run. Despite that, I’ma try and run tonight after work if I can.
Run #2-
I ran after work because I couldn't leave today at just three miles. It was still pretty warm outside when I got home around 9:30, but same song second verse, really. I decided to count time since counting miles was pretty much useless since the roads were so bad. Usually my winter runs are confined to one or two routes because people don't shovel their sidewalks, but today it was bad everywhere. Definitely should have hit up the indoor track.
I missed the Milrose games, which I'm pissed about, but I heard ESPN 2's coverage wasn't that great either (surprise, surprise). But I got to see the tail end of the Gopher Hockey game and the NHL all star fantasy draft. I'm not sure what I think of the new format yet, I'm sure I'll write a post on it, but not right now because my head hurts like nobody's business.
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